


Cold Revival

by AstridMyrna



Series: Reylo Rendezvous [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Bad CPR, CPR, Drowning, F/M, Homicidal Droids, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Rey To The Rescue, The Force Is Forgiving, The Force Ships It, These Are My Favorite Tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 16:37:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11740959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstridMyrna/pseuds/AstridMyrna
Summary: When Kylo Ren is thrown off his own ship and falls into the frigid waters of Ahch-To, it's up to Rey to save him.





	Cold Revival

**Author's Note:**

> In the Reylo fics I've read here where drowning is involved, Rey is the one who drowns and Kylo Ren is the one who rescues her. So to shake things up, it's up to Rey to save Kylo Ren this time!

An oversized TIE fighter broke through Ahch-To’s atmosphere, found the island where Luke Skywalker and Rey lived, and circled the island in sluggish laps. Rey dropped the pebbles she was collecting on the beach and watched as the ramp opened up in the first lap, open wider on the second, and finally drop something on the third before flying off.

Rey knew who it was that fell, but she jumped in the waves to try and save him anyway.

*

 _Earlier, on that very same TIE fighter circling the island just moments ago_ —

Kylo Ren remained unconscious as the silver plated RA-9 protocol droid tied his hands and feet together before dragging him to the edge of exit ramp. R3-D5, the charcoal black astromech, rolled nearby and beeped for the man’s life.

“I’m sorry, R3-D5, but when he wakes up then he will deactivate us. We can’t have that, now can we? Besides, he’s long had it coming. Puh-tooie. I would spit on him if I could produce saliva.”

More whines and beeps when RA-9 shuffled to the big red button in the wall.

“We’re not going back to the First Order, R3. We’re going wherever the universe takes us, Maker be damned.”

RA-9 slammed the button and the ramp hissed open. The protocol droid turned to kick Kylo Ren off this ship once and for all, but he was slammed into the wall by an invisible force. He stared at Kylo Ren, conscious and slowly crushing his gears with the Force. With a squeal of defiance, R3-D5 rammed into Kylo Ren and rolled him off the ramp. The little droid drove back to RA-9, who patted him on the head.

“We’re finally free of him,” RA-9 said wearily. “Now let’s find ourselves a new home.”

R3-D5 whistled in agreement. He supported RA-9 back to the cockpit, entered into the ship's system, and guided the ship off planet and off to their next adventure.

*

Kylo Ren screamed as he fell and tried to twist his legs so he’d hit the water feet first while he tried to slow his freefall with the Force but he only had a half a moment to hold his breath before—

The shock of the ice cold water punched out what little air he had in his lungs. He watched the bubbles flutter up and away, his mouth open as if he could breathe them back in again. He tried to pull or push the thick metal cuffs off his wrists until they bled. His arms and legs jerk up and down as his brain screamed to break out of these metal links and swim to the surface to breathe or else he’d die sinking to the bottom…

…where he’d die…

 a…

…light…

He couldn't see the light anymore.

*

When Rey was ankle-deep in the freezing water, she realized that by the time she swam out to where she thought she saw him fall, he’d either be too far gone or she’d be exhausted and drown too. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, held her arms out, and searched for him. A flicker of his energy responded to hers, and it was fading fast. She grabbed onto it and mentally yanked him towards shore as fast as she could. His pale face bobbed up just over the crest of the breaking water, but then his energy dissolved and his dead weight made him sink again.

Panting so hard that her lungs were sore, Rey dug deep and raised him out of the water again. His body rolled with a wave and she grabbed him. The Force made dragging him out and onto the sand a little easier, but it didn’t hold back her panic when she got a good look at him. He wasn’t breathing, he didn’t have a pulse, his lips were already turning blue, and she was certain that Luke would be devastated to learn of his nephew's death when he returned from his visit with Leia, regardless of the fact that he was a war criminal.

Most importantly, Rey hadn’t fished him out of the ocean only for him to die on the stony beach.

This is what compelled her to drudge up what she remembered of what Poe had taught her on saving drowning victims. All she remembered was folding her hands together, putting them kind of in the middle over his ribcage, and pumping up and down until his heart started on its own again. She figured she was doing something right as flecks of water dribbled out of his mouth. After about too many presses, she stopped and checked his still non-existent pulse and breathing. Eventually it occurred to her that there wasn’t the point of having a heartbeat if you didn’t breathe.

She wiped the spittle from his mouth before blowing warm air into it, only for it to come out of his nose and hit her cheek. She sat up and took a couple of breaths for herself, pinched his nose, and bent down to blow air into his mouth again. This time she could see his chest rise and fall with her breath. She gave him three more breaths through his chilled lips before thumping on his chest again.

Thunder rolled over head as the first drops of rain lashed her head. Her body ached and silently screamed at her that what she was doing was a lost cause. Her soul, however, searched for strength within the Force. With trembling arms she pinched his nose and pulled his chin down to give him one more breath. His chest lifted, then fell when she broke away, but it lifted again on its own.

She pressed her fingers against his throat and found a weak pulse. A guttural sound rumbled out of his mouth, and she pushed him on to his side just as he threw up sea water and bile on to the sand. When she turned him back on his back, his body seized up but his teeth chattering as he struggled to breathe in the rain. Rey looked up at the rocky, steep path that led to the huts of the Temple.

“Can you walk?” she asked him hoarsely, then saw the tight metal cuffs that bound his ankles together.

The cuffs came in handy, however, when his body started to convulse from what she guessed was hypothermia. She held him down until he finally passed out.

*

Kylo Ren woke up warm and with a blinding headache. His numb jaw moaned something until a bitter liquid was squirted into the back of his throat. He blacked out again the moment he swallowed.

When he woke up again, he was able to open his crusty eyes and look at the crackling fire he laid a little too close too. Gingerly he sat up and shuffled off all the blankets and pelts that had been piled on him. He rubbed his eyes until his vision cleared enough to see that he was in a beehive-shaped stone hut, wearing one of his uncle’s musty brown robes, and that Rey was snoring on a straw mat next to him with a thread bare blanket over her shoulders. His fingertips brushed his lips.

After laying a couple of his blankets over her, he got off the pallet, headed straight for the door, and stepped out into the pouring rain.

 _Where do you think you’re going?_ her voice rang in his mind.

He spat out rainwater. Of course she had formed a bond with him. It didn't matter. His plan was to steal whatever ship was on this island—

 _Luke has it, and he’s going to be off planet for awhile_.

He stormed back into the hut again and was greeted by her glare. She was up now, but wrapped in one of the wooly blankets he had given her.

“That was the last dry robe in the hut too,” she said.

He stripped it off and threw it on the floor. She tossed one of the thinner blankets at his head, but he caught and pulled it tight around his shoulders. He coughed a phlegmy cough, the airways in his nose and throat still raw from the frigid sea water. She walked up to him and draped her wool blanket over his wet hair.

“What are you going to do with me?” he whispered.

“Make sure you’re well enough to meet Luke when he returns,” she told him, her body so close to his that he felt like he was standing in the sands of Jakku. “What happens afterwards depends on you.”

He licked his dry lips and smiled. “You think I can change.”

“Anyone can change, for better or for worse.”

“So you think I’ll get better.”

“No, worse.”

He laughed until he was bent over in a coughing fit, his lungs almost squeezing shut. When he caught his breath, he followed Rey back to his pallet in front of the crackling fireplace. She sat next to him, making sure he drank his weight in broth and tea. Before he knew it, he was asleep and reliving his dying thoughts in the airless darkness. Rey's cool hand on his forehead woke him, and her face reflected the warm firelight.

"Thank you," he breathed.

She smiled a little and brushed his hair back. "You're welcome."


End file.
